Possession of Land in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • Buckinghamshire County Council v Moran
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 13 February 1989

    If the law is to attribute possession of land to a person who can establish no paper title to possession, he must be shown to have both factual possession and the requisite intention to possess (" animus possidendi"). A person claiming to have "dispossessed" another must similarly fulfil both these requirements.

  • JA Pye (Oxford) Ltd v United Kingdom (44302/02)
    • House of Lords
    • 04 July 2002

    From 1833 onwards, therefore, old notions of adverse possession, disseisin or ouster from possession should not have formed part of judicial decisions. Para 8(1) of Schedule 1 to the 1980 Act defines what is meant by adverse possession in that paragraph as being the case where land is in the possession of a person in whose favour time "can run". It is directed not to the nature of the possession but to the capacity of the squatter.

    Except in the case of joint possessors, possession is single and exclusive. Therefore if the squatter is in possession the paper owner cannot be. If the paper owner was at one stage in possession of the land but the squatter's subsequent occupation of it in law constitutes possession the squatter must have "dispossessed" the true owner for the purposes of Schedule 1 para 1: see Treloar v Nute [1976] 1 WLR 1295, 1300; Professor Dockray (supra).

    What is crucial is to understand that, without the requisite intention, in law there can be no possession. Such intention may be, and frequently is, deduced from the physical acts themselves. But there is no doubt in my judgment that there are two separate elements in legal possession. It is not the nature of the acts which A does but the intention with which he does them which determines whether or not he is in possession.

    The general rule, which English law has derived from the Roman law, is that only one person can be in possession at any one time. The same rule applies in cases where two or more persons are entitled to the enjoyment of property simultaneously. Once possession has begun, as in the case of the owner of land with a paper title who has entered into occupation of it, his possession is presumed to continue.

  • Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd
    • House of Lords
    • 24 April 1997

    If the occupier of land suffers personal injury as a result of inhaling the smoke, he may have a cause of action in negligence. But he does not have a cause of action in nuisance for his personal injury, nor for interference with his personal enjoyment. It follows that the quantum of damages in private nuisance does not depend on the number of those enjoying the land in question.

  • Secretary of State for the Environment Food & Rural Affairs v Meier and Others
    • Supreme Court
    • 01 December 2009

    Thus, while I would translate the modern remedy into modernterms designed to match the remedy to the rights protected, and would certainly not put too much weight on the word "recover", I would hesitate to apply it to quite separate land which has not yet been intruded upon. But the main purpose of an injunction would be to support a very speedy possession order, with severely abridged time limits, if it is broken.

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Legislation
  • Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 2017
    ...... Metro (Birmingham City Centre Extension, etc.) (Edgbaston Extension Land Acquisition) Order 2019 (S.I. 2019/882), arts. 1, 3 (with art. 18) # C8 ...Part 2: Compulsory purchase etc . 18: Power to take temporary possession of land . (1) Subsection (2) applies where a person (an “acquiring ......
  • Common Law Procedure Act 1854
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1854
    ......S-XVI . Rule to deliver Possession of Land pursuant to Award to be enforced as a Judgment in Ejectment. XVI ......
  • Limitation Act 1939
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1939
    ......to any person and, before he recovers possession of the. chattel, a further conversion or wrongful detention takes. place, ...chattel shall be extinguished. Actions to recover land, advowsons and rent. . Actions to recover land, advowsons and rent. . ......
  • Limitation Act 1980
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1980
    ...... of a chattel has accrued to any person and, before he recovers possession of the chattel, a further conversion takes place, no action shall be ... only as a special personal representative in relation to settled land; and regard shall be had to any knowledge acquired by any such person ......
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